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September 02, 2015

The world of psychology was recently shaken to its core. Since science is based on testing and retesting hypotheses, several researchers sought to replicate some of the key findings from three prestigious journals, on topics like free will, emotional closeness and finding a romantic partner. Rather than finding that additional studies confirmed these hypotheses, these researchers found that less than half were replicated successfully. As reported in the New York Times: “The vetted studies were considered part of the core knowledge by which scientists understand the dynamics of personality, relationships, learning and......

July 28, 2015

A friend said, “We all win, or nobody wins,” by way of introducing my family to a new card game recently. Hanabi, which means “fireworks” in Japanese, is simple to learn, fun to play and, most significantly, quite profound to experience. “Profound?” you may ask. “Really, Brad? It’s just a card game.” It is, indeed, a card game – played with a special deck and a few small tokens – but there’s nothing “just” about it. In Hanabi, the only way to win is when all players win together. If that isn’t......

July 27, 2015

A recent post on The Wisdom Daily started me thinking about the line between being personally offended about something (in this case, a bobblehead offered to a select group of charitable donors – more on that in a minute) and being publicly offended (taking that offense to the level of public discourse and setting in motion a sort of public shaming, i.e., an exercise in political correctness). A friend of mine recently observed that “political correctness comes about because of peer pressure, the desire to behave like others or the fear of......

July 21, 2015

How many times have I – or my wife, or most any parent I know – heard the words, “Don’t you trust me?” from a child who’s frustrated by our unwillingness to acquiesce to an unwise idea? Well, it turns out that American politicians tend to ask us the same question. The difference is, with our children, the answer is that we probably do trust them, just not the idea they propose. With our politicians, is that the case? Isn’t it true that we just don’t trust most of them all that......

July 08, 2015

The New York Times website recently featured a very short puzzle to help you assess how good you are at solving puzzles. It’s simple: Type in three numbers, and see if those numbers obey a certain rule. Some sequences will obey the rule, and some won’t. What’s the rule? Interestingly, if you try the game, you’ll almost always get the response, “Yes!” (Yes, your numbers follow the rule.) But when you try to guess what the rule is, you’ll probably be wrong. Why? Because we almost always start with, “Here’s my idea,......

July 02, 2015

From Odyssey Networks’ Faith on the Record series: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights endowed by our creator – equally, in all of us – are fundamental in America. And while we hold these truths to be self-evident, as our Declaration of Independence says, are we ensuring these rights as best we can? For example, start with life: “When it comes to the sacredness of life….an average of 28 people a day are murdered with guns in the U.S. [The estimate jumps to 89 people daily if you include......

June 23, 2015

We’re all familiar with the expression about missing the forest for the trees, and its wisdom about not being distracted by smaller details that undermine our appreciation of the “big picture.” No doubt, that’s often good advice. After all, who among us hasn’t gotten bogged down in the details of a situation or a relationship, to the point that we lose touch with the larger purposes which give meaning to those very details? On the other hand… What about the wisdom that comes from attending to the “trees” even when the “forest”......

June 17, 2015

Imagine a young couple, happy and bubbling with anticipation over the birth of their first child. Only a few months are left before the big day.?But then, a sonogram reveals an anomaly – maybe in the shape of the skull, or the size of the kidneys. Something isn’t?quite right. Hearing such news is among the most devastating things a parent can experience. Thrown into panic mode, parents hunger for more information, and grasp for something tangible to help them understand what is happening with their child. Will my baby be OK? Will......

June 04, 2015

How do you make the most of whatever you have? It’s not an insignificant question, but not exactly a new one either. Or is it? When it comes to making the most of our years, it actually is. Consider this: A person turning 65 today can reasonably expect to reach their 84th birthday and beyond, while in 1950, the average person who reached 65 was barely around past their 70th! Time remains our most precious resource, to be sure. After all, you can make more money, more friends, more love. But we......

May 28, 2015

I am a drug user, and I’m not afraid to admit it. In fact, I think if more people could get more comfortable with drug use, a great deal of needless pain and suffering could be avoided. Okay, I’m referring to my occasional use of prescription-strength naproxen for headaches and a statin to lower cholesterol – not marijuana (legal or otherwise), or whatever else you may have thought I meant. To be clear, though, I’ve used opioids, the same stuff that makes heroin all that it is, for weeks at a time......